I CAME ALIVE IN THE MORNING RAIN

Stepping out in the morning rain, I came alive, as teardrops of the sky refreshed my skin. The rising spring plants, glowed with new life, as my eyes were transfixed by the rosy breast of a bullfinch hiding in the hawthorn. Again I felt the wonder of the earth, and surrounded by pulses of life, the spirit of it all came to me. Wild and beautiful places fill me with awe and wonder of the intricate web of life. Created or evolved, I sense a unity of design and reflect that every creature, great and small just is.

Jim Emerton

THE SUN AT GOA

I gazed upon the fiery ball, and knew it was all i would see in that part of my destiny. Crows danced and cawed, and flew as shadows against the setting sun. Soaking up the final, soothing rays of another day in paradise, I sensed a sublime feeling, becalmed and serene. I drew deep upon an image that one day would morph into poetry, to re-enact a few precious moments under the intensity of a cosmic flow, that came to show me the spirit of the earth ,a living rebirth of all that is fine and beautiful.

Jim Emerton

EASTERN INFLUENCES ON MY PSYCHE

My love of harmony, beauty and nature has been enhanced by a liking of the teachings of Buddhism and Taoism. With part of my life spent in the Himalaya, and gazing upon Annapurna, I sensed some absorbing peace and calm generated by synchrony with the external world. The brain processes the images in a subtle balance between the microcosm and the macrocosm. You can find yourself in wilderness, wild remote places, where the wind howls and the ice crystals cling to your beard. I went deep into my primal being and felt the surge of instincts from the depths of the brain/psyche synthesis. A youth of the sixties we owe a debt to the psychedelic subculture, for its art, music and literature. I am in love with the spiritual mindfulness, created by attention to the Eastern Philosophical Traditions, which acts as a conduit for my creative musings and philosophical insights. I have been inspired by The Taoist Vision, and Still Life with Persimmons - both lovely works of art. Lake Dahl in Kashmir was enchanting, and inside The Golden Temple of Amritsar induced pure euphoria. Beyond formal academia, I owe a debt of gratitude to my global encounters in the spirit of adventure!

Jim Emerton

HUMMING BIRD HAWK MOTH

Darting and dancing in pure free air, this ethereal jewel seeks a delicate nectar fix. I love to see the whirring, silent wings of pure diligence as they flit from cornflowers that have evolved as hosts, over centuries of chronological time. Then the magic moment in time is lodged in conscious memory. Birds of paradise and the moths are kissed by genius and touched by the hand of God, and I find Zen within my soul, when I encounter their beauty.

Jim Emerton

THIS WARM AND BEAUTIFUL FEELING

I want it all to never die, the lights I see in the sky, when I gaze upon the sun from the nothing I had become. My eyes were full today, and as the wind blew by I knew I would never die, as a single raindrop trickled down my cheek to shock my senses back to life. As we flowed along, in the woods of long ago, I felt the closeness of the earth below, as the orchestra of nature played a summer song, to ease me into the throng, so that I felt at one with time and place, beyond the pulse of the human race. One day when the bodily morph is done, I will find my place in the fallen leaves, on the lonely rock in the mountain stream.

Jim Emerton

WHEN THE NORTH WIND BLOWS

Alone in the wilderness, listening to the voice of nature, I found my place. A walk along the sea wall at night, high as a kite, as the wild duck flew against the scudding clouds, and the short-eared owl hovered above my head. The moon loomed large, shedding its cool, melancholy light, as it shimmered on tidal pools. Curlew, primeval birds of the vast open spaces filled my ears with plaintive and eerie calls, as ancient remnants of a haunted past. Then the clouds were occluded as the north east wind, fresh from Siberia stung my face, with snowflakes tinged with iodine from the North Sea. All the books I have read, the things I have seen do not compare with the raw instincts of pure being.

Jim Emerton